Sunday, April 26, 2015

MAC Amber x 9 palette review

Sometimes things get released that make me swoon and this is one of them! MAC has launched/is launching four compact eye palettes in colour co-ordinated tones-Burgundy x 9, Purple x 9, Navy x 9 and the one I purchased, Amber x 9.

The compacts are the size of a regular 4 quad from MAC but pack in 9 mini shadows with a good range of both matte and shimmer, limited and permanent shades-it's lightweight and portable and this will probably now come with me everywhere.

Amber x 9 was the one that stood to me the most. As someone who owns more than 75 (I know I know) single MAC shadows it only contains one shadow that I already own-that's pretty impressive in my book. I was tempted by Burgundy x 9 too but I already own 7 of the 9 shades in the compact so my reasons for buying it would be driven by the ease and convenience of having complimentary shades altogether and used for travelling mostly. It is well put together though and as a taster palette from MAC it's ideal. I think Navy x 9 looks interesting as a smokey eye palette and contains an all time favourite in the shade Club. It seems more grey toned than navy toned to me though and the shades seem mainly limited edition.

I am however extremely happy with Amber x 9 though and here's a run down of the shade selection.

Cozy Gray-Not in the permanent collection but included in the MAC Cool Toned palette which I own. This is a matte stone colour, only a shade darker than my natural skin tone so great for a defining crease colour or even eyebrows.

Kitties-Limited Edition. Great name for a shadow, Kitties is a warm light gold with a slightly shimmery texture. This is a really beautiful shade alone but also over other shadows to give them a more metallic, sparkly finish-recently I wore this over NARS Brousse and loved the finish.

Georgia Peach-Limited Edition. Matte, medium peach toned brown with good colour payoff for a matte and another creasework/transition shade.

Ricepaper-Permanent. Yellow toned, frosted light gold

Creative Copper-Limited Edition. Golden bronze with a coppery undertone-good colour payoff for a lustre finish and easily buildable with a sparkly metallic finish.

Cork-Permanent. Satin finish, medium almost golden brown. The three middle colours work really well together for a golden smokey eye.

Dont tell-Limited Edition. My favourite in the pan. A warm rosy brown with slight sparkle-very versatile and rich in pigment.

Aromatic-Limited Edition. A medium brown matte shadow that pulls quite grey on me. This can be a little patchy and difficult to blend out.

Pepper Please-Limited Edition. The sparkle in this shade is very obvious in the pan-the golden glitter sparkles against the dark grey toned brown backdrop. Once swatched however the sparkles are much less visible on the lid and again the shade pulls greyer on me than it appears in the pan.

I know I will get a lot of use out of this palette-it's a no fuss/the colours are right there/they all work together compact that would suit most skintones. My favourite MAC release in a while!

In the US this retails for $40, in the UK I would expect it to be around the £30/35 mark when they launch and apparently this will be a permanent line!